Black Dispatches

[mithen]

One of the best parts of writing "The House of the Earth" (if by "best" one means "most agonizing") has been doing research on slavery in America and in general.  I was reminded of that when I came across this news story about Jefferson Davis' slave, who was a spy for the Union, and other slave spies.  There's a whole book out called Black Dispatches on the topic that I'd love to get my hands on.  It's amazing--people didn't see slaves as anything but furniture, so they talked freely about strategic secrets right in front of them.  That seems so... karmically fair, somehow, that their own ignorance and inhumanity could be turned against them.  And I'm always awed and humbled and amazed by stories of what people under such impossible conditions will do to fight for their freedom.  No fictional story could do them justice.

Comments

[liarashadowsong.livejournal.com]

Slavery was a terrible, terrible thing; no human (or any other sentient being) should ever be treated as property. I'm glad you're doing your research so thoroughly.

I'm afraid I know nothing about the source you're looking for, though it sounds fascinating. If you'd like, though... I'm currently taking a course about slavery in the ancient world, focusing on Greece and Rome. I'd be happy to send you PDFs of some of my reading assignments as provided by the course's website, or even .doc files of some of my lecture notes (I type them because of my lousy handwriting that becomes indecipherable for notes in classes that aren't math or science). I have an entire twenty-some page reading just about slaves in the household, with a huge section about maidservants that I used for my midterm exam, even...

If you'd like any of my readings or notes, just say so in a reply; I think I still have your email address from when you told me about your new account after I freaked out and PMed you on the SuperBat fanfic site after your jen-in-japan account became jij and I couldn't find it. *sheepish*

[mithen.livejournal.com]

I...actually would really love any PDFs you might have handy! I'm especially interested in Greek and Roman systems as a point of comparison with the American system, so you would totally make my day! And yep, I think you've still got my email. :) Thanks so much! *dances*